Thomas Hewitt Jones' Carnival. Composed 2010. Written for Martin Neary President of the Organists Charitable Trust. These five short works are all extracted from the excellent Little Organ Book from the Organists Charitable Trust edited by Martin Neary and first published by Novello in 2010. This is a wonderful resource of 11 mainly new works by British composers all of moderate difficulty and well-defined character. Iain Farrington’s Bluesday is full of delicious harmonies with a bold climax framed by a gentle beginning and ending. David Bednall’s Fanfare is a joyful work that would bea good recital opener or festival voluntary with a chance to unleash the big reeds. The simplicity of the title of Howells’s Cradle Song belies a richness and warmth that make this a moving miniature. John Rutter’s evening prelude from 1979 on the plainsong hymn Te lucis ante terminum is tender and clear with some surprisingly plangent harmonies. Thomas Hewitt Jones’s Carnival is an outburst of festivity and bravura. All these pieces are very much worth playing though organists interested in more than two of them would be better served purchasing a copy of the original anthology which is still very well priced (Little Organ Book Novello 9781849386814 £9.95). - Sunday by Sunday

Vingt chansons populaires dont ' Fools Rush In ', ' Guantanamera ', ' Dans un peu Spanish Town ' et 'Kiss Me Honey Honey Kiss Me'. / Orgue

Henry Purcell spent almost half his life as Organist of Westminster Abbey but surprisingly wrote very little organ music himself. Bryan Hesford has rectified this with this volume of pieces arranged and transcribedform other sources. The pieces have been chosen with a view to introducing students to independent part-playing at a technical standard somewhat simpler than that of JS Bach.

Twenty-one essential anthems, chorales and marches, arranged and engraved in three staves for two manuals and pedals. Edited by Stephen Duro.

Josef Rheinberger (b. 1839 d. 1901) was a prolific composer in almost every field but he found in the Organ the medium best fitted to his genius and temperament. This seems to be proved by the fact that his reputation as an Organ composer has grown and is now firmly established whereas his position in other branches has declined. His twenty sonatas and his numerous shorter pieces (about a hundred) make up one of the most important contributions to the Organ repertory. It may indeed be claimed that in the maintenance of a high level of quality and interest throughout a long series of works of both large and small scale his position as an Organ composer issecond only to that of Bach. Sonata No. 19:The G minor Sonata is one of a small proportion of the twenty - No. 15 in D is another - concerning whose merits players are divided. It does not meet one half-way. It is the longest of the twenty: some monotony inevitably results from the use of the key of G for all its movements : its difficulties are of the ungrateful type : and the vigour of its first movement is often rough-even harsh. Yet it appears to be among the favourites of those who know it well; the late Dr. G. J. Bennett (a pupil of Rheinberger's and a devotee of the Sonatas) placed it among the best of the later numbers. Sonata No. 20:In spite of some inequalities No. 20 makes a worthy end to a fine series. Rheinberger's failing health at the time of its composition is no doubt responsible for a few moments of indecision especially in the Finale. The invention shows little if any falling off. In all the sonatas there are few better themes of the broad diatonic type than that which opens the first movement ; and the pleasant tunes of the Intermezzo and Pastoral and the swinging subject of the Finale are in the true Rheinberger vein. But the lack of a substantial fugal section is felt: it might well have come as a central portion of the Finale which

Suite Gothique remains Leon Boellmann's most popular composition. It is tuneful approachable and technically straightforward and its superb Toccata has become an organ 'classic'. It creates a thrilling effect with the mosteconomical of means. Boellmann wrote liturgical organ music motets songs and a little instrumental music. One is left wondering what he would have composed if he had lived longer.

A major influence on Bach ? who once walked 200 miles to hear him perform ? Buxtehude is among the great names in Organ music and the study of counterpoint. Born five decades after Heinrich Schütz the 'father of German musicians ' and a little less than half a century before Bach he bridged the era between the founder of Protestant Baroque music and its greatest master. This collection of church chorales attests to Buxtehude's reputation as an outstanding composer of sacred Vocal music.For his texts the composer drew upon scripture as well as church hymns and contemporary or medieval sacred poetry. Albert Schweitzer in his famous biography ofBach observed that Buxtehude's chorale preludes are 'chorale fantasias of the most varied kinds from the simplest to the most ingenious. In the simple ones the melody goes its way quietly just embellished here and there with a few ornaments and accompanied by interesting and always ingenious harmonies. . . . In the large chorale preludes Buxtehude tears the melody in pieces throws the fragments into the flood of a brilliant animated fantasia.'Authoritative and modestly priced this treasury of Buxtehude's works offers organists a source of endless satisfaction and inspiration.Reprint of the Breitkopf & Härtel Leipzig 1903 edition.

Composer's Note: In writing these pieces I had in mind certain difficulties which worry most organists from time to time; and in order to combine as it were business with pleasure I thought it worthwhile to concentrate upon one aspect of organ technique in each piece even at the risk of making them a little more difficult than others in this series. In Procession the main difficulty lies in the pedals Arabesque on the other hand could hardly have had a simpler pedal part: its object is to exercise the left hand in producing a smooth running semi-quaver pattern Pageant with its cross-rhythms is designed to produce well-disciplinedhands and feet that can when required work in conflicting rhythms. I have kept the registration schemes as simple and straightforward as possible.

Pour les années Kevin Mayhew publie des collections utiles pour les organistes de paroisse emballés avec des morceaux accessibles et mélodieuses - et cette nouvelle collection ne fait pas exception. Jetez un regard sur les compositeurs inclus et vous savez quelle qualité de s'attendre. / Orgue

The Oxford Book of Christmas Music for Organ, Bk 2. The second Oxford Book of Christmas Organ Music comprises a diverse collection of seasonal organ music, covering the Church's year from Advent to Epiphany. The music is stylistically varied, and the pieces are drawn internationally from across the centuries with a mixture of established repertoire set alongside newly commissioned works.

Un style qui repose sur le contrepoint, ou l'interaction de deux ou plusieurs motifs, la fugue a captivé les auditeurs pendant des siècles.Cette collection originale propose une grande variété de pièces de grande époque de la fugue à l'époque baroque ainsi que d'autres époques, chacune créé par un maître du genre. Avec des oeuvres de Bach, Buxtehude, Brahms, Schumann et d'autres, tous ensemble ici pour orgue solo. / Orgue